DAILY FIX: Aeges, “My Medicine”

by | Jun 22, 2012 | MUSIC

Seriously, you guys, the 90s are back. Every time I turn around I run across another sign, another portent of the imminent revival of the era that was the soundtrack to my teenaged musical awakening. It’s really strange. But I’m also hearing a lot of music that I totally love as a result, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain. Here’s a great example of some 90s-revival action happening out there, and it even involves some of the same people who were making great records back then!

Seriously, you guys, the 90s are back. Every time I turn around I run across another sign, another portent of the imminent revival of the era that was the soundtrack to my teenaged musical awakening. It’s really strange. But I’m also hearing a lot of music that I totally love as a result, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain. Here’s a great example of some 90s-revival action happening out there, and it even involves some of the same people who were making great records back then! Aeges is a supergroup of sorts, featuring Pelican drummer Larry Herweg, Undertow/Shift guitarist Mark Holcomb, 16 bassist Tony Baumeister, and singer/guitarist Kemble Walters, who sports the least impressive resume of the men assembled here–his highest-profile gig was as a sideman for Juliette Lewis in her ill-fated punk project, Juliette And The Licks. Clearly, he should have been a singer the whole time, as his vocals here are polished and capable, showing more of a melodic timbre than any of the vocalists who were tackling this sort of driving post-hardcore sound back in the 90s. Of course, I also have a soft spot for the unorthodox deliveries of Quicksand’s Walter Schreifels and Sparkmarker’s Kim Kinakin, so if Walters was too smooth of a singer I’d probably turn up my nose. Thankfully, he has just enough grit to keep things angst-ridden, and the band does the rest by backing him up with a strong, driving midtempo groove that integrates octave chords and subtle lead guitar melodies while at the same time keeping the pedal to the metal. If a mid-90s post-hardcore revival is springing up all around me, I’m certainly not going to complain, but even if it isn’t, the new Aeges LP, The Bridge, from which “My Medicine” is the first single, will still probably be enough to keep me happy for a while. I hope you all dig it as well.

Marilyn Drew Necci

Marilyn Drew Necci

Former GayRVA editor-in-chief, RVA Magazine editor for print and web. Anxiety expert, proud trans woman, happily married.




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